The practice has long been a vestige of Washington reporting, but a recent dust-up with national television outlets has prompted the Virginia Republican’s staff to reconsider how they interact with the media.

Instead, the No. 2 Republican and his staff is mulling selecting reporters he considers to be fair for smaller interviews.

And when he wants to make news more broadly, he will use one of the Capitol’s TV studios — a far more controlled environment.

“Due to a multitude of recent complaints about the pen and pad, our office is evaluating the usefulness of this venue to members of the press heading into the new year,” said Laena Fallon, a Cantor spokesman. “It is not productive for journalists of different media outlets to argue with each other over such mundane issues, and several objections we received this week made it clear that many in the press corps have concerns with our pen and pad. Going forward, we will continue to explore options that foster a productive and equitable environment for press engagement with Leader Cantor.”

The dust-up refers to Tuesday’s pen and pad, where Cantor allowed CBS’s “60 Minutes” program to film the usually camera free sit-down for a piece they are doing on the lawmaker. The majority leader’s staff sat down with representatives from the radio and television gallery this week to discuss the issue. Other television outlets wanted to pool camera resources if one network was allowed in.

Members of the radio/TV gallery called Cantor’s treatment of the newsmagazine a “double-standard.”

In their meeting, they discussed ways to switch the pen-and -pad format in 2012

Aides in Cantor’s office said they were upset about a New York Times story that referenced the leader’s “lengthy weekly news conferences.”

The pen-and-pad is a standard way for lawmakers to interact with the large Washington press corps. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Cantor hold separate roundtables with reporters each week. They typically run between 30 minutes and one hour, and questions are broad and the format freewheeling.